Condorman

Its great film to watch

Like a lot of people here i have fond memories of this film as a kid but with no vhs release and hardly any showings on tv this film has become hard to track down. Often called one of the worst films of all time by critics and to be honest while watching as an adult all these years later you can see why with Michael Crawford fresh off his success of sitcom Some Mothers Do Ave Em at the time of release and trying to crack Hollywood having the worst American accent you will ever hear in films and Oliver Reed's bad guy not much better with a bad Russian accent, the plot about a comic book writer who ends up becoming a spy and using his comic book character Condorman as an alias and becoming the hero in the real world is to be honest a mess. A real car crash of a film but also great fun to watch too with Crawford the star of the show and frankly some bad acting, ridiculous effects and very cheesy, the film is like a cross between a bad James Bond film and a superhero movie but is still despite it all a lot of fun to watch and you can't help cheering Michael Crawford's hero and booing the bad guys lead by Oliver Reed hamming it up like there's no tommorrow. The film hints at a sequel at the end that never happened and has become a cult classic.

I remember seeing Condorman in the cinema as a nipper, and even then finding Michael Crawford (then mostly known for a role in a TV sitcom) a very unlikely leading man... But the idea of a comic book writer/artist creating a hero based around what he could actually do, only to get to live the role of a high-level CIA espionage operative just because he did a favour for his CIA clerk friend, and getting fully-working versions of all his fantasical gadgets made for a fun movie. As Woody Wilkins (an alliterative name in the grand tradition of Marvel), Michael Crawford bumbles his way through one dangerous situation after another, emerging not only surprisingly intact, but victorious in almost every case. With gadgets that would make Bond raise an eyebrow at his Quartermaster's pedestrian offerings, and showing surprising skill (or almost unbelieveable luck) in high-speed pursuit on both land and water, Woody saves the girl (played by Barbara Carrera), beats the bad guy (Oliver Reed) and surprises friends and enemies alike along the way. The practical effects - Woody's home-made Condorman costume, the CIA 'upgrade' and all the vehicle stunts - are exceptionally well-done for the time. In long shots when Condorman is flying, there's an actual person (Crawford himself for some of it, if IMDb's trivia is to be believed) being dangled from a rig, flapping about over Paris and Monte Carlo - these days, it'd all be CGI. Weirdly, one of the things I like most about this movie is that, during the speedboat dogfight near the end, the laser blasts from Condorman's turret are actually shown to be reflected by the surface of the water... Nice attention to detail, if a little haphazardly done. Supposedly, a sequel was planned (which explains the ending)... but the movie sadly underperformed in cinemas, and it's unlikely Disney would ever reboot such a bonkers property. Alas, this is another of Disney's 'lost' classics in that, having been hard (if not impossible) to find for ages, the DVD transfer is appalling. At best, it looks like it was taken from VHS, at worst (the speedboat scene toward the end, or any of the bluescreen sequences) it may as well have been copied through someone's cellphone. Audio quality is OK, but the ADR work is far too obvious. I'll admit to rating this artificially high for nostalgia's sake - it's a fun, silly spin on the Superhero/Super Spy genre, and I loved it as a kid. In terms of picture/audio quality and extras (of which there are none!), it's 2/5 at best.

Brilliant film. Full of action and full of comedy.

Exactly what I need to see. Such a great film

I don' t really get why this gets such poor reviews when you look it up on the net. I have seen much much worse films out there. There are some pretty ropey moments special effects wise & in the editing in it & does feel like it was made 10 years before. But having just put it on I found it pretty watchable & it kept my attention & I'm easily bored or distracted. The strange part is the casting of Michael Crawford as the lead. He plays an American which he does ok, but anyone who has seen Some Mother's Do Ave'Em will catch Frank Spencer slipping into his character. It's an enjoyable film if not a bit silly. I would say the concept of Condorman with flying suit is daft & could have been dropped from the film & made it more of a spy comedy, than a silly comical spy movie. But give it a go it's not all that bad & its only on for 87mins.

Fast delivery

Good film

Produit conforme

I just got the Region 2 Disney UK DVD of Condorman in the mail today and instantly put it in the player. I am fairly certain that I saw this in the theater and then a million times on the Disney Channel, but have not seen it since the mid 80's when I was very young. When I started to watch, I noticed how it was similar in concept to Gotcha! (1985), with an American civilian mixed up in international intrigue. And as much as I still like Gotcha!, Condorman is the superior movie. Gotcha! is all nerdy hormones and awkwardness, while Condorman just rolls out fantastic comic book surprises one after the next. For an actor whose career apparently peaked with this movie, Michael Crawford does a great job and is very likeable. James Hampton is a guy with not a ton of name recognition, but has a ton of face recognition, and is great in this movie. Barbara Carrera went on to be a Bond girl opposite Sean Connery 2 years later, and is very much a Bond girl here and Oliver Reed plays a menacing villain. Even though The Cat From Outer Space (1978) has more than 6 actors with speaking lines, and a cast filled with recognizable stars from TV and Disney movies, Condorman is just as much fun. The Region 2 Disney UK DVD comes with no special features. Audio options are English, French and German. With Subtitles options being English, French and German as well. The credits all come at the beginning of the movie, which was how credits were done until George Lucas changed the industry with Star Wars, so the lack of end credits seems a bit jarring. When I played this on my computer with the VLC player, there was black bars both below and on the side of the image. But in my multiregion Blu Ray player, the image wiled my widescreen TV. Several UK sellers on Amazon are selling this for under $10 plus shipping and at that price, you can't go wrong with this DVD, if you have the ability to play other region DVDs.

Filmetto della Disney a carattere normo supereroistico anni 80 Con un cast all'epoca stellare e comunque con un'attenzione agli effetti speciali, alla realizzazione, e alle scene Stunt di un certo livello ... Il problema non è il film che è molto divertente ... Il problema sono sempre le scelte riguardanti le edizioni (KO le italiane) che si perdono nel tempo senza più avere audio o sottotitoli per gustarsi il film nella nostra lingua ... Buuuu

Curiosa y excelente película. La película es un clásico de su época. Llena de acción y diversión. Lo que no me gustó, es que no la han doblado al castellano, en el formato DVD.

C'est un Disney !!! C'est sans effets spéciaux mais ça déchire quand même !!!